The majority of us, at some point in our lives, have spent time and money removing hair from our bodies. From the moment you reached for your mum's razor when you first started to get leg hair, to the emergency wax you gave yourself before a last-minute date, to plucking that rogue yet bitterly persistent boob hair – for better and for worse, hair plays a part in women's lives.
Hillary Clinton recently revealed that she spent 600 hours (25 days) in hair and makeup during her 2016 presidential campaign. Even she was shocked at this discovery, expressing her disappointment at the sexist culture that judges a man on what he says and a woman on how she looks when she says it. To be fair, we bet Donald Trump spent around the same time fake-tanning and hair-coiffing – but in the wider context of gender roles, this double standard is infuriating. “I’m not jealous of my male colleagues often, but I am when it comes to how they can just shower, shave, put on a suit and be ready to go," Clinton wrote in her memoir What Happened. "The few times I’ve gone out in public without makeup, it’s made the news.”
Inspired by Hillary's admission, we decided to take stock of how much time (and money) we spend on hair removal each year by asking six women who work at Refinery29 to take us through their routines. Ranging from 40+ hours and over £1,000 a year for darker-haired women, to a mere three hours and the price of a razor for the natural blondes, prepare to feel shocked, angry at society's oppressive beauty standards, or, if you're one of the fair few, blessed!
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Georgia, 26
Disclaimer: I'm privileged in that I have fair hair, so I could grow my body hair out for several months and the average passerby wouldn't spot the layer of fuzz keeping me warm. I'm lucky that hair removal tends not to be too painful for me, either.
Every four weeks I visit the brow geniuses at Bar Hair Ink near Old Street. They tint and thread my brows to perfection. It's £10 for threading and £10 for tinting.
I used to shave a few times a week but after some pretty (mental and physical) scarring battles with the razor, I've switched to epilating. This was a one-time buy of £120.99, which seems tiny in comparison to the money I spent on a constant rotation of sub-par razors. It's surprisingly not painful on my bikini line or legs, and I'll just do it once a month while watching Netflix. It lasts for a whole four weeks, which suits my CBA state of mind. On the underarms, however... let's just say my boyfriend came home to find me crying on the bathroom floor with half an armpit done. It takes stamina, a full stomach, and some painkillers to tackle, so I'll do it maybe once every two months.
Total £ spent on hair removal per year: £360.99 (including epilator)
Total time spent on hair removal per year: 12 hours
Lily, 30
Let's get the "normal" stuff out of the way first. I shave my legs and underarms every four days-ish which costs me about £10 in razors per year, £2.70 in plasters for cuts on my ankle and around five minutes per week, so 20 minutes per month.
I got my bikini line lasered, which cost £800 in total, but I still get some strays so I probably spend 10 minutes a month on top shaving those. The lasering took an hour every six weeks and I had eight sessions which took an hour in total, taking into account travel time.
I get my eyebrows and my upper lip threaded about every month which costs £25 each time and takes an hour when you factor in travel time. And again I spend about five minutes a week, so 20 minutes a month, just plucking extras because they're everywhere all the time. There's one extra-long one which comes out of my forehead, which takes about seven minutes to find every three months because it's blonde because I've likely already bleached it in my monthly face-bleaching session using Jolen, which costs £4.50 and takes 20 minutes a month.
I also epilate my forearms in the summer months, which takes about 15 minutes. The epilator cost £74.
Total £ spent on hair removal the year of laser: £1,200
The years after laser: £400
Total time spent on hair removal the year of laser: 38 hours
The years after laser: 30 hours
Annie, 32
I’m an extremely hairy person. I hit puberty early and was too scared to ask my mum for a razor so would trim my armpit hair using a pair of nail scissors. Once I started earning my own money, age 13 (thank god for paper rounds), I’d buy razors and shave, secretly, in the bath, painstakingly rinsing out the tub afterwards. I thought I was getting away with it until one day, my great auntie tutted in the direction of my obviously fuzz-free legs. At which my mum piped up: “Oh, Annie’s covered in dark hair, she has to do something about it.” (So much for secrecy, eh.) Nowadays, my legs and armpits are the places I care least about. In winter, I shave my armpits maybe once a week and my legs only if sex is on the cards (I know, bad feminist). While I’m at it, I’ll run the razor over my toes, too. Nice.
I get a Brazilian once a month at a salon round the corner from work, which costs £39 a go. I’ve paid a lot more, and a lot less; in my experience, you get what you pay for. I went through a phase of having everything off but then decided that was a bit weird and gross so now I have a triangle, which I find aesthetically quite pleasing. At my last appointment, the lady waxed my actual bum cheeks, so now I have that to worry about as well.
Then I spend probably five minutes every morning on a search and destroy mission to pluck rogue dark hairs from the rest of my body. This includes eyebrows (read: unibrow), chin (though inevitably I don’t find these until later, at my desk, leaving me in a panic for the rest of the day that everyone else can see them, too), my belly, my nipples and this one wiry motherfucker that appears every now and again just below my left breast. I also have two moles that sprout long, dark hairs, which I used to be nervous about plucking. But then I found out it’s totally fine! And now nowhere is safe from my tweezers.
Total £ spent on hair removal per year: £552
Total time spent on hair removal per year: 46 hours
Jess, 31
I'm not going to lie, I have it exceedingly easy when it comes to body hair. I've stayed very fair thus far (although my mother said that all changed for her once she started having kids) and my hair is very fine and light.
Because of this (and the fact that I'm lazy and have a long-term boyfriend, sorry boyfriend), I shave my legs and bikini line probably about once a week (one minute each) and usually nick my boyfriend's razor to do so. Occasionally I'll give in and buy some more heads for my Wilkinson Sword Intuition Razor but that probably happens about four times a year. They're about £7.50. I shave my armpits twice a week, which takes about a minute, if that.
If I go on holiday I will get my bikini line waxed, so that's about £30 for 15 minutes, twice a year.
When it comes to eyebrows, I haven't got the faintest clue what I'm doing. I've got about four hairs per eyebrow so to remove hair on a regular basis would be bananas. Instead, I wait until I catch myself in a mirror in a bright light and pull the few strays out with tweezers.
Total £ spent on hair removal per year: £90
Total time spent on hair removal per year: 3.7 hours
Rachel, 31
I shave my armpits 1-2 times a week, I should do more but no one wants to have sex with me at the moment so CBA. And I quite like it when they go fluffy.
I wax my full leg and high bikini line once a month which costs about £60, even though it grows back within about three days, and I know that I should get laser but I’ve been too lazy and the thought of the cost to do half of the surface of my body is very intimidating. Where would I start?
I get my eyebrows threaded every three weeks at the cost of £19 and my top lip every six weeks at the cost of £10.
I then have the problem of my weird hairs, of which I get many. Two thick, dark bristles that protrude from my chin / jawline once a month, which I am constantly in search of. Then there are the nipple hairs. Most soft and downy (but alarmingly long) and 2-4 that are dark and wiry and that sometimes like to burrow under my skin so I can and I have scarred myself in the process of picking these out with a needle and tweezers. I like to dig deep.
And then there are the many hours I spend pulling out the multitude of ingrown hairs that trace their way under my top layer of epidermis from ankle to bikini line. I would say an hour a month.
Total £ spent on hair removal per year: £1,008
Total time spent on hair removal per year: 25 hours and 20 minutes (without travel)
Jessica, 26
I plucked my eyebrows out as a teenager and now I don't have much to work with. No way am I plucking/waxing them again! I really wish I could grow them thick and bushy one day. I tend to not shave my legs and instead let them grow out, apart from in summer when I do like the feel of a smooth leg and also can't be arsed with how much my hairy legs draw attention in public. I'd like to get to a stage one day where I leave them hairy all year, but I'm probably not there yet.
I have my underarms grown out and I love it. I love how soft it feels and sexy it looks. My boyfriend misses the pits if I ever shave them. I trim them occasionally with a Babyliss bikini trimmer that I got years ago, similar to this one. Bikini? I've got the full bush (which I trim sometimes with the Babyliss trimmer). I sometimes wax my crack if I'm feeling especially saucy (although it makes my farts REALLY loud!?). I sometimes get my bikini line waxed before a holiday, but again for the appeasement of others rather than for me. So I want to try and go on holiday and embrace my 'bikini baccie' (as my cousin calls it) and let the pubes free.
Probably the most hair removal I do at the moment is plucking my nipple hair with tweezers. Bit painful but weirdly satisfying.
Total £ spent on hair removal: Bought the Babyliss razor many moons ago, so unless I get a wax, I spend nothing!
Total time spent on hair removal: 1 hour
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